September 30, 2017 - Today we drove into the city of Yorba Linda to visit the Susanna Bixby Bryant Ranch Museum and Botanic Garden. In 1875, John Bixby, one of the founders of Long Beach, purchased nearly 6,000 acres of land in what is now eastern Yorba Linda from the widow of Bernardo Yorba. After marrying Dr. Ernest Bryant in 1904, John's daughter, Susanna, built the Bryant Ranch house in 1911. In 1927, she decided to create a special 200 acre garden as a memorial to her father. She collected and planted shrubs, bushes and trees that were native to California. After Susanna's death, the entire botanical garden was moved to Claremont in 1950 and it is now known as the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden.
The long ranch house is dominated by the large living room at this end of the house. The stones in front are a working sundial.
The rest of the house is divided by a long central hallway. The dining room, kitchen, mud room and offices are on the left and all of the bedrooms are on the right.
Since Richard Nixon was born in Yorba Linda and his Presidential Library is not far from here, there are a few tributes to him at the ranch.
This is the living room.
The piano is original to the house.
The dining room is the next room down the line.
This is the kitchen.
This is the mud room, which is very large to accommodate the many workers at the ranch.
There are sinks in every bedroom but only one bathroom for the entire house.
Each bedroom now displays different periods in Yorba Linda's history.
That section of wall that juts out into the room is the closet to the adjoining room. Each room has a door to the hallway and a door to the next room.
There are a lot of restaurant choices in Yorba Linda, but we decided to try our luck at Wise Guys Pizzeria. The atmosphere was casual but the food is excellent. I had their "Red & White Clam Linguini" with both sauces over clams and linguini. Judy had their "Shrimp Scampi Linguini" which is a white wine, lemon roasted garlic sauce with sautéed shrimp, capers and Parmesan cheese. Afterwards we had to try their "Villa Dolce Gelato," which was just like the gelato we've eaten in Rome. Mine was chocolate, incredibly chocolate, and Judy's was a hazelnut nut crunch. It was a feast!
